Bob Filner: “I am offering a way to do that. In my amendment, an additional $1.1 billion is added to veterans health care by…”

“I am offering a way to do that. In my amendment, an additional $1.1 billion is added to veterans health care by declaring an emergency with regard to the health care of our veterans. This figure was not arrived at arbitrarily. All of our Nation's veterans got together during this budget process and came up with a budget, a responsible budget and a professional budget, what they called an independent budget, which said what would be needed at the absolute minimum to keep our commitment to our Nation's veterans after almost 5 years of straightline budgeting, which resulted basically in a real cut in services; what would be needed to keep our commitment to our veterans. They decided that about a $3 billion increase would be necessary, and they pointed out the programs and the areas that would be funded with that $3 billion. The committee plussed-up that account by $1.7 billion. I would like to add the $1.1 billion that these veterans requested. We have a true emergency here, Mr. Chairman. Keeping the promise we made to our veterans is an emergency. Providing health care is an emergency. The VA health care is drastically underfunded and in danger of collapse, and we must change that.”